1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to video systems for monitoring and security purposes in home and commercial buildings, and more specifically, to glass break detectors and video dome cameras for surveillance purposes.
2. Prior Art
Video systems that monitor surveillance areas generally use sensors, such as motion detectors, to prioritize what cameras in the system are displayed on a display and recorded. Thus, if a motion sensor in a certain area is triggered, then that camera is displayed on a display and recorded.
Glass break detectors are only designed to detect the breaking of glass. Although acoustic glass break detectors detect the breaking of glass through microphones, the setting or threshold of the level of the noise is usually high, as the breaking of glass results in a loud noise. Thus, if any noise below this setting or threshold is made, whether the glass breaks or not, a control center or alarm panel is not alerted because the glass break detectors only detect when the glass is broken, which requires a loud noise.
However, in certain surveillance areas, noise detection may be needed or required. The glass break detectors in the prior art do not have a noise detection mode that may be required in video or other applications that need noise detection.
Further, in the prior art, the video systems used for monitoring surveillance areas either use motion detectors or glass break detectors for prioritizing which cameras are to be displayed and/or recorded. If motion is detected or glass breaking is detected in a certain surveillance area, the video from the video cameras located in that surveillance area of the glass break detectors or motion detectors is viewed to determine the cause.
Video cameras in these video monitoring systems are usually placed in sphere-shaped video camera domes, and these video cameras are capable of 360-degree rotation, so that all possible angles can be viewed once the glass break or motion has been detected. Video cameras that are placed in video domes have a limited field of view; however, they have a large area of interest. Thus, even though the camera is able to turn 360 degrees and record or monitor at any possible angle, the odds are that the camera will be looking in another direction or location instead of the area of interest at that time. By the time the cameras are rotated all the way around to see each possible angle and determine the cause of the motion or glass breaking, a thief might have left the surveillance area, thus escaping before being seen or recorded on camera.
Thus, there remains a distinct need for improvement of the security video monitoring systems described above.